Distinguished Alumni Awards - Honoring Alumni

Now Accepting Nominations

Award criteria:

Distinguished Service Awards are given in recognition of professional achievements and community service. Nominees must have achieved prominence in their chosen field and brought distinction to the University and/or their community through their accomplishments.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to alumni for exceptional career achievements, exceptional contributions to the campus and community, and for setting high standards of excellence in their personal and professional lives.

Honorary Alumnus Awards are given to friends of the University who have demonstrated a close affinity to the campus and who have rendered exceptional support and leadership to the University or Association.

The Rising Star Award is given to a graduate of Sacramento State who has received his or her first Sacramento State degree since 2006 and has made outstanding contributions professionally, to the community or to Sacramento State.

Deadline for 2018 nominations:

Friday, April 20, by 5 p.m.

NOTE: Current Alumni Association Board Directors, Chapter Leaders or others in key Association leadership positions are not eligible for consideration during their active term.

2017 DAA Honorees

The Distinguished Alumni Awards event was held on Thursday, April 20th, at the Harper Alumni Center, Sacramento State. See videos and pictures from the event below.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Sponsorship opportunities for 2018 are available. Learn more about how you can benefit from partnering with the Alumni Association on our Sponsors/Affinity Partners page.

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2017 Sacramento State Distinguished Alumni Awards Honorees

Distinguished Service Awards

Kimo Ah Yun '90 (Communication Studies)Dean of the Diedrich College of Communication, Marquette University

Kimo Ah Yun ’90 (Communication Studies) came out of high school thinking he might go to college one day, but with no real plans. Turns out, most of his adult life has been spent on university campus.

After earning his communication studies degree at Sacramento State, Ah Yun earned master’s and doctoral degrees at Kansas State University and University of Michigan. He returned to Sacramento State as a faculty member in his old department and began a series of steady steps up the academic ladder to director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, chair of the communication studies department and finally associate dean in the College of Arts and Letters.

In 2016, Ah Yun was named dean of the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. His many honors include the President’s Research Award from Sacramento State and the Jack Hunter Meta-Analysis Award from the International Communication Association and multiple articles in scholarly journals.

When it comes to creating successful high-tech companies, Kraig Clark ’91 (Accountancy) has the Midas touch.

In 1997, Clark and a fellow Sac State alumnus teamed up to create CoreLogic, a data analytics firm for the mortgage banking industry. The duo built a dynamic company that created hundreds of regional jobs, generated millions in annual revenue and resulted in a profitable merger after just 10 years. Clark then harnessed his business acumen and passion for the environment to found two more companies, JLM Energy, an energy technology firm, and eScreen Logic, an environmental consulting firm.

Clark appreciates the education he received at Sac State and still finds inspiration in many of his classes. He recently participated in an entrepreneurship guest panel for the fall issue of Sac State Magazine where he shared his thoughts on innovation and persistence. Clark credits his professors for the skills, work ethic and tenacity he applies to all of his endeavors.

“Part of my goal was always to start my own business and blaze my own trail, and Sac State helped me accomplish that.”

Carol Garcia ’80 (Family and Consumer Sciences)Senior Vice President for Marketing and Business Development, Community 1st Bank

Hometown and Hornet pride run deep for fifth generation Roseville native Carol Garcia ’80. The Distinguished Service Award recipient is joined by her mother, husband, sister and daughter as proud Sacramento State alumni and active community volunteers.

After 37 years in community banking, Carol finds fulfillment in her current role as senior vice president of marketing and business development for Community 1st Bank in Roseville. She attributes Sac State sociology and communications classes for arming her with a necessary soft skill to help customers, identify new business and manage relationships.

Garcia is the recipient of numerous local and national awards, served on the Roseville City Council and as mayor, and is co-founder and chair of the Placer County Breast Cancer Foundation which raised $1.5 million to endow a Breast Cancer Chair at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.

"The greatest skill that I took out of Sac State was how to work with people and I use this knowledge every day."

Gilbert Herdt, MA ’72 (Anthropology)Cultural Anthropologist

When it comes to scholars and experts in anthropology, few can match the accomplishments of Gilbert Herdt.

The world renowned clinical and cultural anthropologist specializes in human sexuality—ranging from sexual identity and orientation in children and adolescents to aging in LGBT adults. He’s published more than 30 books and edited more than 100 scientific peer-reviewed journal articles, chapters, encyclopedia articles and scholarly reports.

Herdt received a Fulbright scholarship to Australia where he enrolled as a doctoral student at the Australian National University, the leading center of Melanesian studies. He spent two years conducting fieldwork in Papua New Guinea for his thesis on males’ experiences of manhood rituals, TheIndividual in Sambia Initiation, 1978.

He’s also the founder of the National Sexuality Resource Center at San Francisco State University. In addition, Herdt has treated mental health issues as a professor and chair of the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago.

"I've been to many universities in my life and what I really liked about Sac State is that I got a very good education and felt grounded here. I felt embraced by Sac State, through my own transformation as a professional and as a person."

Water is known as an essential property for living. Andrei Tokmakoff ’89 (Chemistry) sees it as much more.

The Henry G. Gale Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago leads a research group of nearly a dozen doctoral students and post-doctoral trainees. Dubbed The Tokmakoff Group, they study the properties of, and the molecules that dissolve in, water, such as proteins. His group is developing an ultrafast camera that captures how H2O’s molecular structure changes over time.

Tokmakoff’s research has received high praise from his peers in chemical and biophysics. His accolades include the Ernest K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy from the American Physical Society, the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, and the National Fresenius Award.

Andrei comes from a family of Hornets. His father, the late George Tokmakoff, was a history professor at Sac State for many years. His sister Larisa ’95 (English) and brother in law Paul ’95 (Accountancy) are alumni of the University.

“I hope this award can raise awareness about how valuable Sac State is as an educational institution for Northern California. There are tremendous opportunities to turn your Sac State training into top level careers and leadership positons in many different areas.”

Growing up as the son of a civil rights activist, Angelo Williams MA ’06 (Education), MA ’07 (Higher Education Leadership), EdD ’10 can’t remember a time when he wasn’t interested in social justice.

Over the years that passion for helping others has included advocating to the legislature to increase student financial aid and overseeing grant programs for the country’s second largest educational philanthropic foundation.

These days, Williams is advising parents on how to keep their families, and their communities, healthy as director of community engagement and mobilization for the California Black Health Network. He is also introducing high school students to the power of social justice through an NAACP youth chapter summer program, serves on the faculty at Sacramento City and Sierra colleges and graduated from the Nehemiah Emerging Leaders Program.

Rising Star Award

A labor and employment Swiss Army knife. That’s how Ryan Harrison, MS ’11 (Criminal Justice) describes his role as principal human resources consultant for the California Senate Rules Committee. Harrison says in his position, he draws upon his background of being a law enforcement officer as well as my experience specializing in labor and employment law.

In his spare time, Harrison serves on the board of directors for Cottage Housing, a non-profit that provides housing and treatment for addiction among the homeless. He also volunteers as a mentor at McClatchy High School and is a senior fellow of the Sacramento Nehemiah Emerging Leaders Program.

While attending Sac State, Harrison partnered with faculty as a graduate student instructor, served on the Graduate Studies Policies Committee and as ASI Director of Graduate Studies. He received his bachelor’s degree from UC Davis and his juris doctor from UC Hastings College of the Law.

Award Information

The Order of the Hornet Award was presented from 1972-1985. In 1987 the awards became known as the Distinguished Service Awards, periodically giving Order of the Hornet (*) designation to selected recipients.